Traditional flashlights usually include a housing that comprises a generally cylindrical casing, having a hollow interior into which batteries are received.
In order to provide strength to the flashlight, and protect the batteries, the casing is normally made from a hard, rigid plastic or metal material. Battery contacts and wiring are disposed within the interior of the hard plastic casing.
One end of the casing is typically closed, and the other end of the casing is open. The open end of the casing often includes a threaded end surface for threadedly receiving a light assembly, that when joined to the casing forms a part of the overall flashlight housing. The light assembly includes an axially facing, radially extending lens cover, that covers over a highly reflective parabolic or conical dish. The dish includes a light bulb placed at the base of the dish.
A switch member is usually mounted on the outwardly facing, cylindrical side surface of the flashlight. Typically, either a push button-type switch or a slide switch is employed to enable the user to turn the light on and off. Examples of such flashlights are shown in Shiu. U.S. Pat. No. D524,972; Lynch, U.S. Pat. No. D425,231; and Leopoldi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,495.
Flashlights of this type have been produced in many sizes and shapes and have been used for many years, and are still in widespread use. Although such flashlights are often large and cumbersome, they have significant utility because the size of the interior of the rigid casing can be made large enough to hold a plurality (e.g. 2-5) of large batteries, such as C or D cells, to provide the flashlight with sufficient candle power (or lumen) to cast a bright light on the surrounding areas, and sufficient power reserves to produce light for relatively long periods of time. Because of this large battery capacity, flashlights of this type are often used in work and safety-related applications and are often carried by police officers and other security and safety personnel. Additionally, the Applicant has been an inventor in the field of flashlights and other lighted devices. See, Killion, U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,991; Killion et al., U.S. Pat. No. D636,509; Killion et al., U.S. Pat. No. D636,510; and Killion, Published Patent Application No. 2010/0110670 A1.
Although the rigid casing of the flashlights described above are usually cylindrical, advances in battery and light bulb technology have permitted designers to expand beyond the confinement of typically employed cylindrical shapes. For example, a large number of “flat casing” flashlights exist that employ more compact batteries and advanced technology bulbs such as LED bulbs. See, e.g. Lee, U.S. Pat. No. D549,862.
Recently, “soft flashlights” have begun to be used in several applications. As used in this application, a soft flashlight is a flashlight that has a non-rigid easing. The casing on a soft flashlight generally includes a pair of plastic sheet-like members that are joined together to serve as its outer casing, rather than a hard rigid plastic covering. Another typical feature of soft flashlights is that they are generally thin and somewhat sheet-like in their configuration rather than being cylindrical. More accurately, such soft flashlights might comprise thickened sheet sandwiches.
A typical soft flashlight includes a first sheet member that serves as the top cover member, and a second sheet member that serves as a bottom sheet member. The top and bottom sheet-like members are usually coupled to each other around the edges, so as to form an interior pocket there between. Functional elements (e.g. bulbs, light assembly, switches, batteries) are disposed in the pocket formed between the first and second cover members.
The interior components that are inserted within the pocket typically include a battery for power, a switch to enable the user to turn the flashlight on and off and a light source. The recent popularization of LED type light bulbs has facilitated the use of such soft flashlights because of the low power usage, and bright light provided by such LEDs. The bright light and low power usage of LEDs has generally made such lights practical, as such lights are usually powered by a small disc-like battery, of the type that one might find in an automobile key fob, garage door remote control or calculator.
One valuable feature of such “soft flashlights” is that they can be made relatively inexpensively. This inexpensive nature makes these flashlights ideally suited for use as promotional products. Promotional products are products that serve both a functional purpose, and also include advertising to serve an advertising purpose. Examples of well-known promotional products include things such as coffee cups that will often hear the name of a particular company. A wide variety of the promotional products can be found at the Applicant's website at www.benteil.com, that shows, inter alia, a wide variety of pens, clips, magnets and lighted products.
Another feature of the soft flashlights is that they may be constructed to be quite small and inexpensive. As such, soft flashlights work well when attached to key chains, and when carried in purses, as they are quite compact, while still being capable of providing a significant amount of light.
Although known soft flashlights do have several valuable features, they also have some drawbacks. One drawback with several known flashlights is that they tend to be too flexible and “squishy” feeling and lack in any significant rigidity. This excess flexibility enables the flashlight to be bent along an axis that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the device. One problem with this high flexibility is that it imparts an unstable, and therefore undesirable feel to the device.
Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a stiffer, less flexible, soft flashlight than those that are presently known, that will have increased rigidity, and therefore tend to have a better “feel”, and that can also impart a better and wider pressure point for the on/off switching device to thereby make the switch for the device easier to activate through this wider pressure point.
Another difficulty with prior known soft flashlights relates to the wiring. In particular, the electrical components of known soft flashlights are usually wired together through the use of round (in cross section) wires that couple the battery to the LED light. These traditional round wires have several drawbacks. One drawback is that round wires can import a had “feel” to the flashlight as they make the flashlight devices in which they are used seem somewhat lumpy. In order to alleviate this “lumpy feel,” prior art flashlights employed a tunnel that was formed into the foam core of the device into which the round wires were placed.
Another difficulty encountered with the use of typical round wires is that they are difficult to manipulate and attach to appropriate components during manufacture. A further difficulty that is often encountered is that traditional round wires are difficult to attach to other small components such as a battery and switch. Although one can be assured of getting a good connection to the battery by soldering the wires to the battery, soldering suffers from the down side of causing the battery to have an unpleasant feeling or bump.
Alternately, wires may be coupled to a battery terminal via tape. Although the use of tape reduces the size of the “bump”, it is difficult to ensure that one achieves a good and durable connection between the wire and the batteries when tape is used.
Another problem with the use of round wires is that such wires often have sharp edges. These sharp edges have the capability of piercing the soft plastic sheet-like covers of the soft flashlight, thereby detracting from the feel of the device, and possibly causing some discomfort to the user if the user gets pricked by the wires' sharp edge.
Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a soft-type flashlight having an improved wiring system.